Vegetarians/Vegans: Speak up already. In advance.

The BBQ Pit
1

I guess this is more “advice” than “rant”.

I work at my city convention center, where we serve meals to groups as large as 800+ people. For obvious reasons (I’ll just say “logistics”), these meals tend to be of the everybody-gets-the-same-thing variety. The people in charge of the group consult, in advance, with the convention center sales staff to hammer out what each meal’s menu will consist of. Then, just days prior to the event, the chef orders the appropriate ingredients, in the proper amounts, required to prepare those meals.

The chef and his assistants prepare all these ingredients, timing everything so that the food is ready to serve to a large group of people all at the same time. There’s a lot of work, organization, and scheduling involved.

Vegetarians & vegans, the moment you are being served your meal is not the time to announce to your server, “Oh, I can’t eat this! I’m a vegetarian!”

The kitchen staff can prepare vegetarian/vegan dishes easily. In fact, there is a whole list of options for vegetarian/vegan dishes. The thing is, if you didn’t let us know ahead of time that X number of vegetarian entrees would be needed, the kitchen staff didn’t prepare any! If the vegetarians in the group did not inform the organizer of the convention that they need vegetarian dishes, the cooks don’t know to prepare them. Even worse, the chef probably didn’t order appropriate ingredients. If you wait until the meal is being served to announce that you need a vegetarian plate, the cooks will do their best. But they’re probably going to have to scramble to find suitable ingredients and then come up with a tasty dish using whatever ingredients they have on hand. And they have to try to do it very quickly so that you can eat it at roughly the same time as everybody else.

A convention center isn’t a restaurant. We don’t keep a set inventory of food on hand (other than dry goods like pasta). Your group may be the only convention this week, so we’re not going to keep a bunch of produce on hand that’s just going to go bad before it can be used. The chef orders what is needed based on the menu he’s given for each event, and has the fresh ingredients delivered the day before the event. The sales staff asks the convention organizers to find out in advance how many vegetarians/vegans will be attending so that the chef can order appropriately and prepare the vegetarian dishes alongside the standard entrees.

So please, let us know what you need in advance.

2

If this happened, why would this ever happen?:

Wouldn’t all the vegetarians already been accounted for by the convention organizers and that information was transmitted to the chef?

I’m a vegan. I don’t expect to eat much at public functions like a convention.

If I told a server the above, I would probably be saying that it’s not necessary to serve me this because I won’t be eating it. I wouldn’t be expecting him/her to serve me something else unless I had previously ordered it through the convention organizers.

3

Obviously the information is not getting to the preparers of the food. I kinda think that is thr point of the micro-rant.

4

You’re probably right. But that’s a different rant. He’s pitting the vegetarians/vegans. The miscommunication lies elsewhere.

ETA: If he pitted the convention organizers, I wouldn’t have a problem. I’m not one of those. :stuck_out_tongue:

5

Heffalump, let me applaud you as a customer. I too work in food service, and you’d be surprised at how many people don’t let the event organizers know in advance, yet expect to get a full meal.

If it’s sandwiches or something, we can slap some cheese on bread, some lettuce and mayo, and it’s good to go. Or if there’s a meat entree we can leave it off and maybe give a bigger serving of veggies. But a lot of folks get huffy about not being served something “special”.

6

For large gatherings, one can expect that there will be some vegetarians/vegans, even if the host failed to make the proper arrangements – bear in mind that the host might be clueless as to special dietary needs.

Simply on the basis of customer service and the resulting reputation, it would be a good idea for any large convention kitchen to be able to put together a vegan meal at the last minute. Same goes for kosher etc.

7

I go to a fair to middling number of convention center dinners. It’s actually fairly rare to be asked in advance about dietary restrictions by the convention organizers. Either the sales staffs aren’t telling them they need the information, or they’re not bothering anyway.

One of the few organizations that routinely do this well is Toastmasters–there’s always 3 or 4 options, including a veggie one for any dinner.

8

I’ll concede that sometimes the convention organizer is the weak link in the chain, failing to find out like they’re supposed to. But there have been a number of times when we have received a count of how many vegetarian dishes to prepare, only to have ten more people suddenly announce at the last minute that they’re vegetarians. I think there may be some instances where some non-vegetarians see what the vegetarians are getting and decide that looks better than the “regular” entree, and so claim to be vegetarians so they can get the alternate dish.

OTOH, there are certain repeat groups who we know, from their prior events, will include a good proportion of vegetarians and that the number can mysteriously fluctuate, and the chef takes that into account when preparing the food.

Anyway, like I said at the beginning of the OP, this is more advice than rant.

9

I was vegetarian for seven years. In that time I always made a point of advising the host of catered events of my dietary needs. More often that not, my request was lost in the wash. I got in the habit of eating before going to a catered event.

Since many of those catered events were hosted by my own office, I was able to track down the confirmation of my office’s directions to the catering office, and guess what, the directions had included my request.

What it comes down to is that mistakes will be made, be it by the host or by the catering office or by the catering kitchen. Since mistakes will happen, it behooves the catering kitchen to have sufficient supplies and expertise on hand to put together a few simple meals that satisfy any number of dietary needs.

If a catering kitchen’s resources are so stretched that no effort can be spared to handle unforseen special dietary needs, then simply purchase some prepared vegan meals, freeze them, and then when needed, nuke them and toss on some green stuff.

And yes, I have worked in a small catering kitchen (a vegan one actually – and in addition to catering, we supplied other caterers with, you guessed it, vegan meals that could be frozen in anticipation of an unexpected need), and I have also worked as a short order cook.

10

I actually think that in this day and age of multiculturalism (inclusive of ethnic variation, religious variation and individual cultural difference) you should always be offering vegetarian options, without having to get correct numbers.

11

How could you possibly not need the correct numbers, or at least something close? I could see being prepared for 15 or even 20 vegan meals if 10 were requested. I can’t imagine expecting a catering venue being prepared for 50 vegan meals when only 10 were requested. Even if you leave the vegan out, I’ve been to events where people chose their meal when responding to an invitation or buying a ticket and there were still problems, because too many people who who chose salmon changed their minds or forgot their choice and asked the waiter for prime rib.

12

However in this age of low overhead and skin-tight budgets…

13

In our case, the sales rep who “sold” the particular event is responsible for being the “face” of the convention center when it comes to dealing with the customer. He is right there to deal with everything to ensure that the event comes off the way he promised the customer it would. Our sales reps are very attentive in this regard, and they spend a lot of time verifying details right down to the last minute, acting as go-between to make sure all necessary information is relayed to the kitchen. Part of this includes verifying how many vegetarian meals will be needed. So we’re not just checking when the event is booked - we’re checking the day of the event as well in case there have been changes. The chef is always checking with the sales reps to verify what will be needed. Even with all that, there are frequently a number of vegetarians who don’t seem to materialize until the meal is actually being served.

I think the chef does keep some frozen vegan entrees (prepared in-house) for use in emergencies, though microwaving frozen dinners is not the preferred option. It’s never as good as something that’s been prepared fresh.

There is cost to consider. When we’re talking about events on the scale we regularly cater, assuming a certain percentage of vegetarian plates is frequently going to result in over-preparation and a lot of waste. If it isn’t served, we don’t get paid for it. Some groups include no vegetarians, while others include more than the typical percentage. Sure, we require a certain minimum guaranteed attendance that will be paid for, but we try not to prepare too many plates beyond what is expected overall.

14

Is it really so difficult to have a vegetarian option that’s ready to go just in case? Pasta and marinara, or any Italian noodle dish. Stir fry with rice or noodles. Burrito with beans, not meat. Vegetable curry. Pizza. A nice big salad, with bread. I mean, this isn’t so hard, is it? Why do people get all bent out of shape about what to serve vegetarians?

15

Actually, it’s about having to scramble at the last minute instead of being able to devote the care and time necessary to present a truly excellent product. It’s about coming up with a vegetarian plate that is the culinary equal of the “standard” plate, as opposed to microwaving some frozen noodles and dumping a can of marinara sauce on them.

16

It isn’t, but it is hard to make a bunch of extra food that someone may or may not eat because of dozens of different dietary restrictions.

Unless the organizers are willing to pay for extra plates - someone needs to pay for “wasted” food.

If the organizers are collecting dietary information (vegan/vegetarian/kosher/halal/food allergies - my own meals gluten free please) - and that information is getting passed along to the convention who are not providing the quantities ordered, shame on the convention organizers.

If organizers aren’t bothering to collect dietary infomation and just assuming everyone can eat chicken cordon bleu (my favorite of the convention center “so many people can’t eat this” menu choices - wheat, dairy, non-kosher, non-vegetarian, all wrapped up in one little convention ready package), shame on them.

But, when people refuse to take responsibility for their own dietary restrictions and then act all put out when they can’t be fed - shame on them!

Most people I know with dietary restrictions carry something they can eat “just in case” - the most annoying people are the ones who just expect the world to just start rotating around them with no notice “I can’t eat that, what do you expect me to do, starve?”

17

I never expect to be asked, for a function along these lines, about dietary preferences. It’s nice when someone DOES ask, and if they’re going to ask, it’d be nice if they’d follow through. I do think that we “weird” eaters are still enough in the minority that the burden of compliance falls on us, though.

18

I keep kosher, and unless someone asks me before an event if I have special food preferences, I assume I’m not getting much to eat from the hosts. I either bring my own or make do with a beverage and a piece of fruit. Anybody who expects their special needs to be catered to without giving warning is either very self-centered or very naive.

19

Not necessarily. :frowning: The last time this happened to me (unexpected conference dinner, no opportunity to request a vegetarian entree ahead of time), they put down a plate containing meat in front of me. I looked at it with dismay, but didn’t do anything. After a lot of haranguing from my coworkers around me, I reluctantly returned it to a waiter, explaining that I’m vegetarian. I got - swear to god - a plate of lightly-steamed (i.e., one step up from raw) thick-cut vegetables. Not even a sauce on them. I said screw it and didn’t touch that either, beyond some initial prodding to determine what I was actually given. I had lost my appetite by then.

At that point, a reheated frozen dinner would have been welcome. I was shocked, since this place had a good reputation for a wide range of food styles/cuisines.

20

If I had a dietary restriction and I knew I was attending a catered function, I would speak up. I would not wait to be asked about it. Food restrictions are rare enough that they are the exception, not the rule. Therefore, the responsibility of making sure I have something to eat falls on ME, not the event planner, not the convention staff, and certainly not the kitchen.

For an example (not a catered meal, but in a restaurant) a couple showed up one night, and one was allergic to parsley. We put parsley in 90% of what we made, and we could not take it out (soups and sauces made with stocks that have parsley, meats with parsley in the marinade, risotto made with stock, etc, etc.). So this couple ended up with a meal that none of us in the kitchen were proud to serve, because we had so little on hand that they could actually eat. They made another reservation for a few weeks later, and we had time to make small batches of stocks, sauces, etc with out parsley. They had an amazing meal that our chef (and us cooks) took great care in preparing. If the guests had simply notified us about the parsley allergy when they made the first reservation, none of this would have happened, and they would not have been disappointed with their first visit.

So, the point of that story is this: If you have an allergy or a dietary restriction, do not assume that the kitchen can put something together for you at the last minute, because most often, they can’t.